Thursday, January 19, 1978

Both reading and listening are necessary. But the knowledge received from the Guru should perfectly tally with what is read and heard. ‘I am exactly like what I have heard and read and what the Guru has told me’: this is the way. That which remains after dismissing one’s consciousness is the Truth. Union with God is yoga. After the union, both of them get extinguished and the One who witnesses is the supreme Self – the unmanifest state of being.

The body is prakriti (nature) and the one who resides in the body is Purusha (Self). The one who acts is prakriti, while the Purusha is the passive witness. In other words, Prana is the movement and its knower is consciousness. Both the energies have no form. Prakriti and Purusha are not separate. So long as you take yourself as the body, there is no peace. Keep in mind what you have heard and discriminate constantly. One who has realized prakriti and Purusha becomes liberated.

In the body, God is experiencing Himself with the feeling ‘I am’. The Guru’s word is your beingness; this should be your conviction. Surrender yourself to Prana; drop identification with the body. One who knows the power of Prana is a jnani. His meditation continues all through the day. Concentrate on the source of the vital energy (shakti). This meditation is carried out with that energy. Everlasting peace is the great accomplishment. When both prakriti and Purusha are forgotten, there is real rest. By virtue of meditation, the feeling ‘I am so-and- so’ is lost. To make meditation successful, be faithful to it. Concentrate on the Self with the energy of Prana. When this energy is arrested, the consciousness becomes one with it and samadhi ensues. The knowledge received from the books has to be tested with one’s own experience.

When we get up from deep sleep, the first to appear is microscopic consciousness. It is the feeling ‘I am’, before any words. This seed consciousness is the cause of all experiences. In no time, it takes on the form of the universe. But you have to see how this consciousness is unreal. The world appears with your wakefulness. The experience goes away along with the one who experiences. Catch the Source of this knowingness. When an operation is done under anaesthesia, there is no pain. If a man dies in that unconscious state, is there any pain of death?

While listening to these talks, you forget yourself and thereby forget the world. You remain in your natural state of being. Is it not a great benefit? Devotion to the Guru rewards you with Self-realization.

Sunday, January 22, 1978

Your true nature is not different from Parabrahman. Your self-identity is based upon your body and you consider yourself as male or female. It is a mistake that you call yourself a human being. That which is listening now is your true nature; it is pure consciousness. It is a mistake to call it a body. Your true identity (unmanifest principle) is there prior to your knowledge. Whatever form you take yourself to be will not last. Actually, you have no birth or death. They pertain to the body.

Your consciousness is a result of the activity of the three gunas. It is transient. It is not understood properly because of the three gunas. Your sense of happiness or sorrow is the result of consciousness. But this consciousness will vanish just as fire gets extinguished. The supreme fire is Self-realization.

Does the sun know that its brightness varies? You experience the fact by virtue of your own light. The most important of the three qualities is the quality of knowing (sattva). You know everything through this quality. Who creates the houses, machines, roads, etc.? Is it not due to someone’s consciousness?

You enslave yourself because of your needs. You will be free from this slavery when you realize that consciousness, which is listening, is free and formless. It is your true nature. Recognize That by which you feel you are alive. To tell you about your true nature as to what it is and how it is, is the meaning of the word Nirupana.

What you conceive through the mind will not last. Sense of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ is the natural characteristic of consciousness. Catch hold of the main guna – Sattva as jnana – the quality of knowingness. Live a life without expectations. Then, automatically, the attachments will fall off. Recognize that you are without requirements. Your true state is spontaneously there. Do not disturb it through the mind.

You have always taken God as your support. That does not mean that you know God. Rama, Krishna and Vishnu are names of bodies. They command great devotion because they had realized the Truth.

A devotee can have visions of the deities if he meditates on them according to what he has heard. What is the source of that vision? He, himself, is the source of it. Whatever you have taken for granted has no value. Worldly dealings are not under your control. They will keep on going. Once you are stabilized in your Self, you will never feel a want of anything.

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (God as creator, sustainer and destroyer) are the names of your own Self. Jiva is born as a matter of course along with time. There is desire associated with the jiva. Your knowledge of the world depends upon your consciousness. When someone says, ‘I go to the subtle’, what does it mean? It, of course, implies consciousness, your sense of ‘I am’. It has no shape, no colour. It has a taste – the awareness that ‘you are’. What is the relationship of this knowledge to you? Does it die when the five-elemental body ceases to be? Think of how you would appear if you were not the body. Keeping in mind what you have heard and pondering over it is the greatest penance. Through the practice of this kind of meditation, you will go on changing continuously and you will reach a stage where there is no further change.

The Truth has no knowledge of Itself (it is unmanifest). Attend to this goal constantly. Drive away body-consciousness from your mind. No matter how much you insist, you cannot be a man or a woman forever. The five elements will merge into the five elements.

Even if you do not understand all this, at least understand That by which you know ‘you are’. Once again, meditate on your goal continuously. It will enlighten you. Your mind needs some support. You cannot bear your consciousness without having something else to think over. To meditate on the Self is possible only with the grace of the Guru. Such meditation is unique, not commonly found in the world.

The nature of time is such that it will not allow anything to remain steady. If you cannot focus your attention on the goal (consciousness), call it as ‘Guru’ and say, ‘I am meditating on my Guru’. This is simple. The world is a creation of your own consciousness. Purusha is the passive witness – the seer, and prakriti (the power of Prana) is doing everything through the body. Mind, intellect and intuition are all names of the energy of Prana. There is no separation between jnana (consciousness) and Prana (the life force). They are two sides of the same coin. Hence, if Prana is pleased, consciousness is pleased. Meditate on the life force; then meditation on consciousness will take place indirectly. Both have no form. All activities take place because of these. How can one say that they (jnana and Prana) are dead when the body dies?

Your thoughts of ‘me and mine’ do not allow you to know your Self. Hence, you live in an undignified manner. At least remember what Purusha and Prakriti are. Achieve union with Prana. Prana is God. It implies movement. In the end, the knower of the movement and the movement itself both merge into that non-qualitative state. For the sage, the occasion of Prana leaving the body, the occasion of the great departure, is a celebration.

‘Wait for a moment at the door of God. All the four kinds of liberation are there.’ The meaning of this quotation is that if for a moment your attention is fixed on your Self, you will be liberated. The Guru liberates you. He initiates you by saying, ‘Your true nature is like my own’. He gives you the mantra, not taking you as male or female, but as the consciousness that listens.

Jiva is perfect and yet he is moaning with the fear of death. The sage feels compassion for the jiva, for its condition. That is the reason why he sometimes gets angry and impatient.

Sunday, January 29, 1978

When you look at the moon, what do you see between your eyes and the moon? The space in between is not seen. Similarly, your own light, through which you look, is also not seen. They are one and the same. Your consciousness is of the nature of space.

The creation in descending order is as follows: First comes the seed consciousness i.e. the feeling ‘I am’, then space, followed by the other four elements. This is the sequence.

The one who has realized his own consciousness, its cause and its duration, is the knower. He does not act. When the king is seated on the throne, the administration goes on, just because he is. Similarly, the knower does not act. Along with birth, the feeling ‘I am’ arises. Before birth, there was no such feeling. The vital energy carries out all the actions. The knower is beyond the known. (The knower means the supreme Self or the Paramatman who is prior to consciousness.) It is the unmanifested state. It is the true nature of everyone. One who has realized this state is called a jnani. The ignorant person takes the feeling ‘I am’ as the body, the seeker takes it as pure consciousness, but the jnani does not identify with anything. After listening to this, compare it with your present state of being.

There was no concept before birth but an eternal peaceful reality. The concept ‘I am’ comes through the power of the sattva guna. Because of ignorance one apparently enjoys body-consciousness. A seeker enjoys it as knowledge. The knower is beyond knowledge. A realized soul is beyond that enjoyment altogether.

Sometimes it is said that a remedy can be an obstacle, yet there is one remedy available to you. Chant your mantra. With faith in the one who has given you the mantra, your consciousness will become stronger. As a result, there will be no weakness in your actions. The greater the faith in the Guru, the earlier the success. If you take your Guru as a human being, your consciousness will harass you. One who follows this faithfully will enjoy liberation in this very body. To surrender means to be without body-consciousness. To offer everything to Brahman means to be without quality. Act with the conviction that the consciousness that sustains the universe is within your body. On your own, you are unable to do anything. All the actions are carried out by the life force. The Guru introduces you to consciousness.

Because of ,your presence (the pure consciousness) the places of your pilgrimage become holy. There is nothing more sacred than consciousness. When you realize your Self, there will be nothing as holy as you. When you get this conviction, there will be no need for associating with others. One who has pride of his (so-called) enlightenment is ignorant. How can one have any pride when he realizes that nothing has happened?

Love implies our need for beingness. Love is infinite and unlimited. It is consciousness that has arisen in us unknowingly. It is without shape, caste or creed. It is the pure quality of the vital energy. It is the power of this love by which we feel that ‘we are’.

A jnani never competes with anyone. Therefore, he is beyond criticism. Those who dislike a jnani are unripe due to their body-consciousness. They do not understand what a jnani says. With the grace of the Guru, the understanding could come in an instant. Do not impose body-consciousness on the Guru who is without quality and without form. What you are hearing now is the knowledge of the experience of the Self. It is not hearsay.

Whose is this voice? When was it created and why? It is the voice of Prana. It is not your voice. Meditate with your consciousness, not with the body. Only love moves around in the form of the three gunas and the five elements. It is the self-love.

Devotion to the Guru opens your eyes. That which is seen without the eyes is superior. Before the eyes open, the light has got a dark blue shade. As soon as the eyes open, it becomes colourless. Be loyal to the Sadguru. Do not impose your body-consciousness on Him. After recognizing the seed-consciousness, everything becomes an offering to Brahman. (Such a person becomes unattached to worldly affairs.)

Who is talking? Is it you that is talking? The word belongs to space. And you are beyond space.

My Guru used to say no matter how old you are, you are only a child. (The body gets older. Yet consciousness is always in the present moment. It is like a newborn child at all times.)

There are various kinds of practices in the world. To work miracles after getting spiritual powers is also a type of learning. I did not get into that. I only studied the nature of the Self as taught by my Guru. In comparison to the realization of the Self, all else is meaningless. Without faith in the Guru, you will wander about going to various teachers and holy places. If you follow your Guru’s word it will not be necessary to go anywhere.